Friday, 9 August 2013

LINDSAY LOWEND WIND FISH EP

This is my kind of music. Like, so seriously, it is my kind of music. I can't stress that enough. So if I talk too nicely about it then you're just gonna have to deal with it. Sorry. Anyway, I just saw someone post a song from this EP on Twitter and once I explored further into the actual EP itself I just had to post it up. I have a bit of trouble with multiple-song posts, because as you know I usually only just write about one song; when I write about lots of songs in one place, I tend to write about each song individually. But who wants to go onto a music blog and hear the blogger being self-deprecating, trembling in fear at the task ahead of him, complaining of his own efforts and talents? Nobody, of course. And that's why I am about to plough ahead. Once more unto the breach.

So first of all this is a nice collection of songs by someone called Lindsay Lowend (great name), a guy from America. I don't know anything more than that. The EP is gloriously titled Wind Fish after that mythical is-it-real-or-is-it-a-dream entity from the classic Gameboy title, Zelda: Link's Awakening - and it's not the first time that LL has referenced the game: he uses its intro theme for the intro in this mix, for instance. References aside, it's a stunning EP. One that makes you glad to be alive & with ears to boot.

On the whole it's a beat-heavy foray into a world that mixes cutesy electronica/game soundtrack with sunny hip-hop. When it all first starts with 'GT40', a rap sample declares "Got dem hoes in the kitchen" - a refrain that pops up throughout the song. The song is all swagger and sweetness, a strange mix, but it works. Machine gun hi-hats fire over explosive kicks and snares that cook up a glitchy skate-hop beat. Female vocals feature as samples throughout - something that's taken to the next level on 'Sass Mouth'. Altered female vocals zing through the distorted bass of the track, a more laid-back affair than the previous song. It's late evening in this one. Sunset has only just finished, leaving a red sky and the remnants of a humid day behind.

The strange videogame soundtrack synth sounds of 'It's George' are quite lovely - the high-pitched synth that almost seems to cry out is a stroke of genius. The audacious way that it's toyed with and strongly modulated is almost breathtaking. Just before 6 minutes in this song there's a brain-twisting drum solo (from where, I don't know - anything to do with a George the Drummer somewhere?) that seems to mark a change in the song's dynamic in general. This next section features minimal fluffy synth, dreamy glockenspiels, a sense of fidgety urgency - sounds a bit like the music in the Mysterious Woods from Link's Awakening, actually. This one's heavy with nostalgia. A real journey. And it's where you see the hip hop influence fall away in everything except the beat.

Same goes for final belter and title track 'Wind Fish'. Game-like synths set the scene at the beginning but we're soon transported to a dance-mat aesthetic, frantic double-speed house pianos battle against cutesy swarming synth-vox. The second half, however, is a dream world where the samples are chiptune-waves crashing on the beach, then a glossy synth chord odyssey with a two-step beat before finally we're whisked away out of the dream and back to reality.

Anyway. It's damn good and damn beautiful and if you like hip hop or game music or anything remotely electronic and wholly original, then get this. You can buy it iTunes.